I introduced a new rat today! But it's whining?

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Iwanttoeatyoursoule

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OK so as of today I have 3 rats. All females. One of the older ones is sick and not doing super good, and I was planning to eventually get a third healthy one for the other healthy one to play with. Today I went to the pet shop, and there was a HAIRLESS RAT for 3 bucks! I had to have it. It's so ugly that it's cute!

Anyways, that being said, the hairless rat is smaller than the other girls. They all seem to be getting along pretty well for now. The healthy one roughed her up a little bit, but nothing serious, I'm assuming this is just to show her who's boss. There seems to be no serious animosity.

The only thing is that the little hairless one does something a little weird. She seems to be whining when she is around the big healthy rat. She's not scared, she just follows her around (getting under her) and she just whines a bit and carries on. Is this normal? It's like she's saying ''love me! Please!''

lol

anyways.... I'm sure it's gonna be ok but im curious about animal behavior in general and i would like to know what this is about.

thanks!
Nic
 
We have a dumbo rat that is 1 1/2, another that is 8 months and we just got 3 new babies around 2 months. Right now the babies are in a different cage but it is beside the bigger cage that they will all eventually live in. The one thing I have noticed is that baby rats make all kinds of noise. We have one that sounds like she is sneezing but she all does it when she is happy, another one chirps like a bird when she is happy and we two that cluck like a chicken. My point is it may sound like whining but it may be her way of communicating. If you feel like it may be more, the baby might have been too young to separate from her mom which could be the reason she is following the older rat around. They really should not leave their mom until they around 6 weeks old (prebably 8 weeks), most pet stores pull them away around 3 to 4 weeks. That is much too young.
Plus 3 bucks is really cheap. Are you sure she wasn't a feeder rat? They are treated a lot differently than pet rats and we learned the hard way that they tend to be more prone to disease. At one time we bought a feeder rat and she ended up dying from a bacterial respiratory disease that can affect other rats. We had to take our other rat to the vet to get on antibiotics so she would not meet the same fate.
 
I've seen a few kittens do that with their mother, they seemed to stop it just before they were fully grown rats but maybe it's just something your new one never grew out of.
 
I don't want to give you the "don't buy form pet shops" rant... but, don't buy from pet shops in the future.

When introducing animals its best to do it on neutral ground, something that doesn't smell or belong to either rat. This way they can't fight over their space cause it isn't theirs. When introducing them, always keep the supervised! Don't leave them unattended. And for the first few nights and times you are not around to watch them, keep them separate. When I introduced babies to my older rat, we divided their cage into two and kept the babies on one side and the older one on the other. This way they could still interact and smell each other but could not fight.

Also, really you should have gotten two young rats, so that if introduction doesn't work, she would still have a friend, and also if introduction does work, you won't have to do it again when the older rat dies.

Your rats puffing her fur up to be like "I am bigger therefore I am the boss; don't mess with me". She will do this for a while until she is sure she has dominance over the younger rat. The whining could be her showing that she is not going to fight her for power and like you said "love me, love me".

Its a tricky job, but best of luck!
 
I agree with Inside-Out. I don't think the whining is anything serious, def. stay away from pet store rats (litters tend to live longer and healthier lives) and when introducing new rats ABSOLUTELY DO NOT just throw the new one in the cage. Introductions need to be done away from the cage because of the smells and territorial aspect of it. The roughing up is normal but keep an eye on it!!
 
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